Mathieu Schneider, Vice President, University of Strasbourg, France

UNIMED General Assembly
Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, 23-24-25 October 2019

Social responsibility of Higher
Education Institutions in general, and
especially in Mediterranean regions
Mathieu SCHNEIDER (Strasbourg University)

Social responsibility in HER
Social responsibility, a concept imported from the corporate
world
"Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept in
which companies integrate social, environmental and
economic concerns into their activities and interactions
with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.
By adopting more ethical and sustainable practices in
their operations, they must be able to contribute to the
improvement of society and the protection of the
environment. More clearly stated, it is the contribution
of companies to sustainable development issues.”
(French Ministry for Ecology and Sustainability)

Its translation in HER is often reduced to ethics, and thus often
focused on research.
Different aspects should be taken into account:
• The missions it interacts with (training & research)
• The stakeholders it involves (students, researchers, employees,
society…)
And one should not forget that universities are non-profit
institutions!

Hence, a provisional definition. Social responsibility of HEIs:
• Help to solve the major challenges of society (global and local levels)
• Contribute to the development and transformation of our societies
• Involve and engage stakeholders (students, staff, civil society)
• Disseminate academic values in society (freedom of expression, tolerance,
humanism, solidarity

SOCIAL CHALLENGES
TODAY

Social challenges today
Old and persistent challenges:
• Unemployment -> employability?
• Demographic boom -> wider access to university?
• “Tertiarization” of societies -> knowledge vs. skills; additional skills;
"technical" approach to professions?
• Open world (globalization) -> international training / interculturality?
• Cultural and social integration -> success for everyone?

New and upcoming challenges:
• The digital transformation
• New skills, new trades, new professions
• Artificial intelligence research
• Open Science
• The metropolization of our societies:
• Equitable development
• Support for transformations in rural areas
• Health and food problems :
• Transformation of health studies
• The 17 SDGs:
• Training of both citizens and professionals
• New business lines

• Participatory governance of public and private bodies:
• University participates in the construction of local and global projects
• Involvement of citizens in science
• Fake-news and mistrust of academic knowledge:
• Training by and for research
• The threat of freedoms in some countries and regimes:
• Academic freedom
• Student engagement
• Solidarity towards weakened populations
… and many others!

Specific (and more accurate) challenges of Euro-Mediterranean
regions:
• The internal divide in Europe
• The external divide in Europe (trans-Mediterranean dialogue ?
transatlantic dialogue?)
• The constant migration flow
• Intercultural & interreligious dialogue
• Climate changes consequences

SOCIAL REPONSIBILITY,
A NEW MISSION?
How can we meet these challenges?

How to meet the challenges?
Through internal transformation of HEIs
RESEARCH
• Connection of different types of knowledge (scientific, empirical, popular...),
without exclusion
• Biodiversity of different types of research (fundamental, applied,
participatory, citizen...)
• Targeted interdisciplinary programs (linked to the answer to a social question)
• A free flow of knowledge that might reduce the North-South divide

EDUCATION
• Valuation and recognition of student engagement
• Increased professionalization, through a stronger link with companies and the
corporate world (work-study curricula, apprenticeship…)
• Training through and for research in all disciplines -> towards a "learning"
society?

INTERNATIONAL POLICIES
• Moving away from the exclusive approach of “student mobility”: taking into
account students in free mobility and in forced mobility (refugees)
• Promoting interculturality through diversity (culture as a lever for
international policy)
• Develop solidarity through international commitment and humanitarian
projects

By including other (and new?) stakeholders
PROMOTE A GLOBAL APPROACH OF UNIVERSITY’S POLICY AND ACTION
… and include:
• Researchers
• Teachers
• Students
• Staff
• External professionals
• Associations and NGOs
• Citizens
• Political bodies

By including other (and new?) stakeholders
… which implies a new governance:
• Preserve the political independence/autonomy of universities
• Promote the involvement of all stakeholders in university policy
• Create strategic committees in universities where political and associative
leaders are associated to build a society project
… and new places:
• New meeting/coworking spaces between academic and non-academic actors
(“citizen lab”?)
• Presence of the university outside the campus (suburbs, museum, cinemas,
theatres, villages in the countryside…)

By a global political action of HEIs
Change the standards and criteria of assessment policies, in order to
• Consider the societal of HEIs
• Accept long time in research
• Enhance the place and role of SSH per se and in a transdisciplinary approach
• Recognize the researcher's impact on society in his career based on a multi-
criteria evaluation
• Enhance the researcher's voice in the social space

By a global political action of HEIs
Acting together to change the way universities are considered
• Foster and show what is already done
• Share our best practices within a network
• Promote social responsibility within national and international networks
(Presidents' Conferences, Unimed, EUA)
• Lobby politically for new assessment policies
• Enhance the role of civil society in the university

“GOOD PRACTICES” AT STRASBOURG
UNIVERSITY
“Make science for and with
(young and old) citizens…”

UNIVERSITY
“Welcome, help and support
refugees (students &
researchers)…”

UNIVERSITY
“Build networks…
Work together!”

CONCLUSION

Conclusion
Social responsibility is
• one of the main challenges for our universities and societies
• a new mission that does not add to the pre-existing missions (research and
training), but changes the way we have considered these two missions until now
• the sign of a new era, a new paradigm - that of universities that are full-fledged
actors in society.
In “social responsibility”, there is the word RESPONSIBILITY!

Mathieu Schneider, Vice President, University of Strasbourg, France

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